From: Do, Michael USA CPT USA TF Castle S5 CMO Date: Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 1:16 AM Subject: Deployment Update #7 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE Hello Everyone! Hope all is well. Did I tell you how much I hate the cold weather of Afghanistan in my last update? If so, then I'll say it again, I still hate the cold weather of Afghanistan. :-) The weather has been terrible these past weeks. Walking in the snow just to use the bathroom/shower is no fun at all. In fact, it's not even walking; it's more like running because it's so cold. Well, I know I have been clogging up your inbox with my deployment updates during the past year but not to worry, just want to say that this will be my LAST updates. I know you might be disappointed but my vacation is about over and I am redeploying back to the great USA soon. I thought I'd be able to work on my tan here but it didn't work. So when I get home, I'll be going on a REAL vacation and working on my tan. It's for real this time! :-) Our replacement unit has arrived and we're beginning the transition for redeployment. It was a great tour but I'm ready to go home. I can't wait to go back and enjoy good food, good HOT shower, and just really get my life back again and not have to worry about people shooting at me. On a more serious note, I hope that my updates have been very informative for you. You have gotten a chance to get an idea of the war in Afghanistan through my updates. But keep in mind; my updates were based on my experiences only since everyone has their own experiences and war stories to tell. Since my time here, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly that goes along with war. I've seen the tremendous sacrifices made by our soldiers and let me tell you, it is truly amazing. I have seen a lot of good things accomplished by our soldiers for the benefit of the citizens of Afghanistan. Projects such as schools that we've renovated and built, bridges, clinics, and hospitals go a long way in helping the Afghans to realize their potential for a better future. My biggest accomplishment during this tour was implementing our engineer skills labor workshop initiative. This workshop taught basic construction skills to local Afghans with no prior knowledge of construction and then bring them to a competency level of being able to construct bridges, buildings, and other infrastructures is a tremendous step towards creating the skills labor capacitance that will one day provide for a self reliant Afghanistan with a self sustaining economy free of military support. Over the past year, I have seen our brave soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines fought the good fight for a free democratic Afghanistan but at the same time, protecting and preserving our country's freedom and way of life. For those soldiers who ultimately gave their full measure of devotion to duty for our country, I salute them as they are truly our heroes. I'm certainly glad to be going home and also glad to have made it back in one piece, hopefully. I still have a couple short weeks left and let me tell you, I'm not in the clear until I get on a plane and actually fly out of this combat zone. I've seen some crazy things happen before. Until then, hopefully, my Taliban friends will leave me alone and not shoot at me. :-) When I get back, my next duty assignment takes me as Commander, 387th Engineer Company of the 244th Engineer Combat Battalion, 420th Engineer Brigade, 416th Theater Engineer Command. I have had the privilege of serving on staff assignments for the last 4 years working for three different generals, but I'm ready to go back to the company level and lead troops again. It'll be an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to lead America's sons and daughters as their commander. You're all invited to the change of command ceremony if you are able to attend. Finally, to all who have graciously supported me and the soldiers of Combined Task Force Castle, much thanks! Your kindness and generosity through your care packages have definitely boosted our morale and help make the deployment a more wonderful experience. Again, much thanks and see you all soon! God bless our great USA and our soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors who are in harm's way! Michael
Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! We're definitely well into the winter operations now and also the winter season itself. I really miss the warm weather. We're in pile high deep of snow here. Our thanksgiving holiday was pretty good. No days off for us but we did have good meals. We actually had REAL turkeys flown over here from the. It was a good morale booster for the troops. The pumpkin pies were delicious, though frozen. There were definitely plenty to eat!!! The Christmas and New Year holidays also brought more good food for us as well; more turkey, roast beef, ham, and other assortments. I even got a chance to drink apple cider. Yummy! For Christmas and New Year Day, we officers gave the troops those days off and volunteered for guard tower duties. If anyone has ever done guard duty before, well, you know it's tiring and just plain old suck! I had to wear my kevlar and body armor for 8hrs straight and afterwards, my back was killing me since my body armor and kevlar weigh about. It's no fun having that extra weight on you for 8hrs. On top of that, around 4am the generator in my tower ran out of fuel. My goodness, we waited for over an hour before the generator got refueled and at 4am, can you imagine how cold it is this time of year inat 7000+ ft of elevation? Let me say it was COLD! Plus trying to stay awake at night during the early hours was pretty rough especially when your body is use to operating during the daylight hours. You'll rarely find lieutenants, captains, and majors doing guard duty but for those two holidays, it was good to give our soldiers the days off. It was quite a starry night inthat night too. Even during the winter months when I thought things might get a little quiet, well, I was wrong! We continue to be reminded that we're living in a combat zone every day with the potential for dangers out there. Not too long ago, our Taliban friends fired more rounds of indirect fire to our FOB. Scrambling for cover under the bunkers is no fun when there is snow and ice around. Luckily, no one got killed or injured. Finally, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone (you know who you are) who contributed to the many care packages that were sent to me. I have gotten very positive feedbacks from the troops and they all appreciate Raytheon's continual contributions and kindness in supporting the troops. Until my next updates. Attached pics, 1- Christmas dinner treat, I was really stuffed after eating that turkey wing 2- Afghanistan snow... 3- Guard tower dutieshellip;.HOOAH! Michael P1010067.JPG P1010125.JPG P1010121.JPG
Hello Everyone! It's been quite a while since my last update. I was out for a while on a special mission but back to FOB Sharana safe and sound! Thank goodness! Well, since my last update, the month of September found my Taliban friends being quiet since it was the observance of Ramadan. This is the period where Muslims don't eat or drink from sunset to sundown for the entire month. Then towards the end of Ramadan is a short period called Eid. It marks the end of Ramadan where Afghans spend time with their family/friends and just eat all the food they want. I suppose they're making up a month's worth of not eating and drinking. It's no wonder they were quiet in September, no energy to fight! J Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) continue to be the number killer of troops. Our route clearance battalion is doing a great job of detecting IEDs but our MRAPs/Humvees can only take so much beating. This battalion has a tough job as their mission in life is to travel along our main supply routes everyday and find IEDs. Since my last updates, we lost two more soldiers from Task Force Castle as a result of IED explosions. The reality of war is still evident over here. My staff and I continue to make good progress over here in helping the Afghans. I recently met with the provincial governor to discuss potential expansion of our engineer construction skills workshop initiative and other construction projects. All of our graduates have gone on to find jobs with local contractors so it is very rewarding to see the hard work is paying off as well as the Afghans becoming self sustained. We continue to build bridges, renovate schools and hospitals, wells, etc. for the people of Afghanistan. Well, the winter months have approached and it is really cold here given we're at 7000+ft of elevation. I am really missing the warm and sunny Arizona weather. I also thought I could rest during the winter months since my Taliban friends are probably heading back to their caves and hide for the winter. Well, I was WRONG! My highly motivated commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division has given the order that he wants to take the fight to the enemy and not let them hide during the winter months. So what that means is that instead of keeping warm and sleeping through the cold winters, we're going to be busy chasing the Talibans so that they will not be able to re-supply, re-group, and plan for a spring offensive against coalition forces. We're now busy making preparations to execute our winter operations and keeping them off balance. Until my next updates. Have a good thanksgiving holiday and enjoy the biggest turkey you can eat for me since there are no turkeys here in Afghanistan, only goats and camels. I think I'll pass up on eating goats or camels, doesn't sound too tasty. J Attached are pics1- aerial view of Afghanistan during my tour in a Chinook helicopter 2- aerial view of Afghanistan, poor country right? Very Respectfully, Michael
Hello Everyone! Hope all is well and I'm still alive and well, thank goodness. Some nights ago we took several indirect fires to our forward operating base. It occurred in the middle of the night and next thing I know, I'm jumping out of my bed (wearing only shorts and t-shirt) and running to the nearest concrete bunkers for protection. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to put on my body armor. We're still busy trying to fight off the Talibans. We're seeing the enemy changing their tactics and are starting to blow up bridges in an attempt to disrupt our freedom of movement and supply lines. A couple weeks ago, they blew up 4 bridges along our main supply route (MSR). Additionally, the enemy is also trying to attack more of our bases through vehicle suicide bombers (VSBIED), a new technique, tactics, and procedures (TTPs). We've dealt with VBIEDs before but not insurgents strapped with explosives driving up to our bases and then blowing themselves up. Now we have to adjust our fighting to these new TTPs. It makes it difficult because we are very stretched thin in terms of the number of combat forces we currently have to sustain the fight in Afghanistan. Perhaps the enemy has figured this out, which is probably why they've increased their activities in recent months. For this update, perhaps many of you are wondering what is it that I do out here in Afghanistan besides vacationing and getting a good tan? J Well, thought I'd take this update to share with you my role during this deployment. As a member of Task Force Castle (an engineer brigade), we are the senior engineer force and have responsibilities for all engineering efforts that occur in the entire regional command in Afghanistan. Our area of operations (AO) stretches all along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since we are the best military in the world, we also get the most hot spot AOs to operate in Afghanistan too. Lucky for us. For my specific role, I am assigned to the staff of the commanding general as the brigade S-5 Civil-Military Operations officer. In this capacity, I am responsible for all civil-military operations that go on in our AO. I have direct liaison and work closely with local government leaders at the provincial and district level to provide humanitarian assistance to the local populace and assist them in building their country in the areas of development and governance. Development projects that we are working with the people of Afghanistan are constructing bridges, schools, hospitals, training centers, etc. A major initiative that w e are working with the Afghans is to produce a skilled labor force that will teach them construction trades which will allow them to work on our construction projects, thus putting an Afghan face to the projects vice US forces, thus showing their willingness to take control and build their own country. The end state of this initiative will allow them to become a self sustaining independent Afghanistan with a sustainable economy, thus allowing our military forces to go home. That is pretty much my mission here during this deployment. Attached photos, 1- With the help of my interpreter, I am discussing the progress of our bridge construction project with the contractor. 2- As a principal staff officer, I am briefing the general on civil-military operations matters during his commander's update brief. Until my next updates. -Michael
这Michael 刚发来的Deployment Update #1,与大家分享。博客的顺序反了，有些乱，不过比战争中发生的事情要有序的多。三个Update 所透露的许多信息，也让我对美军战士的军事生活有了许多了解，很有收获。如果能找到他来自伊战前线的电子邮件，也将与大家共享。 Michael 还说他已得到美军的奖学金，完成任务后将回学校攻读NAT （Normal Accident Theory）方面的博士学位。祝他好运，没有Accident,包括Normal Accident。 Hello Everyone! Hope all is well. Just wanted to check in and update everyone. Well, after weeks of intensive training, I'm still alive! J I'm glad to report that the weather in Wisconsin is finally getting warmer even though it's almost May. The cold weather training has been quite an experience. I really do miss the clear, wa rm, and beautiful weather in AZ. All I can say is cold weather training sucks! (pardon my choice of word). I'm surprised I still have functioning toes, fingers, and ears. We've been training with the new issued interceptor body armor (IBA) and it seems to weigh a ton this time. Imagine carrying your body weight plus an extra 40 lbs for 8 hrs everyday. The IBA includes side and shoulder plates for additional protection which we didn't have during my last deployment. We also have elbow and knee pads too. Not that my job description requires me to kick and knock down doors (goodness hope I don't) but I suppose more protection is better than less. Some of the training was really fun though. The HUMVEE roll over, urban ops, weapons simulator, weapons qualification, convoy ops, etc. was fun. Night fire really tested our shooting abilities because the targets were really hard to see. Tracer rounds helped out a lot and served as guide. On convoy ops, reacting to ambushes and IEDs under extreme and chaotic environment was quite an interesting experience. You definitely have to love the profession of soldiering other wise all this may seem miserable. After weeks of individual and collective unit training, the last requirement culminated with a command post exercise (CPX) in command and control. Considering that the unit training was physically draining, the CPX was more mentally draining. It was pure 8 days of being locked in a secure environment and conducting a fast pace war gaming exercise (12-16hrs a day) testing our ability to plan and execute a war as a brigade staff. You can almost equate the CPX to Abu Graib but for staff soldiers. You're locked inside the four walls and only get out when you need to eat or use the restrooms. It wasn't physically abusing but it sure was mentally. Now that we've validated our training requirements, the reality of going to war is starting to set in. We're getting a few days off to relax a little before the fly out. I'm told we will have internet connection where I'm located in Afghanistan so I will be able to stay in touch with everyone via email. Thanks for all your support and prayers! Michael
这是在我邮件里找出的 Deployment Update #2, 但没发现 Deployment Update #1, 已发 Email 向 Michael 要了，收到后将与大家共享。 Hello Everyone and greetings from Afghanistan! Hope everyone is well. I'm now situated in my vacation home. You're more than welcome to visit if you're looking for a good vacation spot. :-) Ok, on a more serious note. After stepping off the C-17 military aircraft and walking off the tarmac at Bagram Airfield, it definitely brings back memories of deployment life again. The scenery in Afghanistan actually reminds me of Tucson, desert with mountains. We are currently experiencing the windy season where winds constantly blow for about 4 months which is equivalent to Iraq's sand storm season. The dust is bad enough but combined with the howling wind really makes it uncomfortable. It gets in your face and eyes constantly. Yes everyone, the luxury of USA life went out the window and it is back to the basic necessities of life all over again. The good thing is that food is pretty good here courtesy of Kellog Brown Root (KBR) (Vice President Cheney's former subsidiary company). We get fresh fruits which is amazing. Afghanistan is not like Iraq. In fact, it's worse than Iraq. There are hardly any paved road networks out here. But there are roads if you consider dirt trails as roads. The entire country is mostly mountainous making it very difficult to travel. Not to mention most of the country is covered with mines from the old days when the people of Afghanistan were at war with the former Soviet Union. We're still helping the Afghans to demine their country today. The region that our U.S. forces have oversight and control is in the eastern region bordering Paskistan. Our insurgent or Taliban friends are hiding near the border and operating in this region. Our coalition forces include British, Polish, Australian, Canadian, and German forces. Since we have the best fighting force in the world, we get assigned the hottest spot in Afghanistan to secure. Now if you are wondering what the threat is like over here? Well, I can say the threat is certainly real. Since I've been in this country, we have experienced insurgent activities. We recently had a suicide bomber who tried to penetrate our forward operating base (FOB). Our route clearance teams have discovered numerous improvised explosive devices (IEDs) emplaced all over the roads. Two weeks ago, one of our convoy got hit with an IED and also took small arms fire from insurgents. One of vehicles got hit with a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). The incident injured two soldiers who had to be medevac to Germany. One took shrapnel to the head and the other in the legs and body. Both will recover but they definitely won't be back for duty. Had their vehicle not been equipped with reinforced armor, the two soldiers would not have survived. Thank goodness the equipment worked when it was needed. Incidents such as these remind me of the preciousness of life. You just never know what will happen. For my part, I have no desires to be a hero. I just want to complete my mission and go home. Until my next update. -Michael Ps. Attached pics-1-My new home, comfortable huh? 2-City of Sharana just outside FOB Sharana huh? 3-My cold weather training, it was cold!
好久未查过去的 Email 帐号，上周一查发现许多老朋友和毕业学生的邮件。其中 Michael 来自于战场的邮件使我大吃一惊上，怎么又回去了？几年前在伊战最危险的时候， Michael 被派往伊拉克，而且还是最危险的地方。当我收到他从前线发来的邮件时，既为他的生命担心，又为美军的开放惊奇，居然还可以从战场的火线上发 Email 。那一次 Michael 本应一年就可以回来，但因兵源紧张，结果一呆差不多就是两年。 这次我匆忙扫了一眼他的邮件之后，就立即回信问为什么又去伊拉克？并祝他安全。没想到他还在网上，回答说这回是到阿富汗了！ Michael 由 ROTC 资助读了亚利桑那大学的系统工程的学士学位，之后跟我读完硕士学位，没学完就买了新房子，可没想到安定日子还没过，毕业不到十年就参加了两场国际战争。 Michael 希望大家把他邮件发给其他朋友，我说可不可以放到我的 blog 上与大家分享，他说可以。但愿阿富汗早日和平，更希望外军尽快撤离阿富汗， Michael 也可以平安回家。 Hello Everyone! Hope everyone had a good 4 th of July holiday break. We continue to fight the war over and defeat the insurgents while helping the Afghans to secure and develop their own country. Since my last update, weve still continue to experience an increased in the number of insurgent activities. Our convoys are constantly getting hit with IEDs making it extremely difficult to travel around this country. In addition, completing our construction projects has become increasingly difficult. You may have heard in the news last month that about 700 inmates escaped from a prison facility in Kandahar /st1:place and 300 of them were Talibans. So now we have to deal with an additional 300 more insurgents running loose in this country. Due to the high level of threat and imminent attacks to our FOB, weapons condition is now amber, meaning every soldiers weapon is loaded. For this update, I want to take this opportunity to write and honor our fallen heroes who were killed last month. Both were assigned to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) located in FOB Sharana. A little background of what PRTs do in Afghanistan ; the PRT is a special military unit that provides reconstruction support efforts in support of governance, development, and security to unstable nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq . They are comprised of civilian and military specialists who work to deliver aid, perform reconstruction projects, and work with local host governments to provide them with b asic humanitarian needs or services such as food, shelter, education, water, etc. PRTs help provide the desired battlefield effects to the maneuver commander as it pertains to civil military operations (CMO). On June 18, members of the PRT went out on a mission when their convoy got attacked by Talibans. As they fought off the Talibans and attempted to get out of the kill zone (by heading for cover at a nearby provincial district center), insurgents tracked their movements to the PDC and fired multiple rockets to the center. One rocket made a direct hit on the center killing CM1 Toles and HMN Retmeir instantly while wounding 4 others including one civilian engineer.Three days later in a separate attack, one of our coalition force and Polish soldier, 2LT Mzrczewski was killed when his humvee was hit with an IED. As you can see, IEDs continue to be the number one killer of U.S. and coalition forces. These incidents reinforce the nature of hostilities that we are continuing to experience in this country. These fine soldiers have truly paid the ultimate sacrifice and we are grateful for their services. They have done their duties and served their countries proudly. May God bless these fine soldiers wherever they have gone. Below I want to share with you all an email sent from our coalition force member, the Polish Battle Group on 4 th July as we celebrated Independence Day: _______________________________________________________________________ Dear Friends Two hundred and thirty two years ago, when your forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they changed the history of the world. Thanks to their sacrifices the world realized the true meaning of freedom. Independence and freedom are powerful words in your country as they are in Poland . When the United States gained independence, Poland was in the process of slowly loosing portions of its borders to its neighbors. We appreciate your efforts towards a unified and independent United States of America because we know how difficult it is to regain freedom and independence. Today we can be very happy with living in independent countries. Today we fight together for freedom for people in other countries, like here in Afghanistan . 4th of July and Independence Day are identified in our country with aspiring to freedom and that is why we are so happy that we can celebrate this day with American soldiers signifying our common goals for peace and freedom. Today we wish you and your nation a peaceful and happy day. Polish Soldiers Polish Military Contingent Afghanistan ______________________________________________________________________ These are powerful and touching words expressed by our Polish friends and prove that together, we can fight for PEACE and FREEDOM. Finally, I have received numerous care packages in the mail sent to me and have shared them with the troops. On behalf of the men and women of Combined Task Force Castle, my sincere appreciation and much thanks for your best wishes and kind support for all of us. God bless our troops and great USA ! Michael Ps. Pic 1- A memorial honoring ourPolish hero Pic 2- I just got back from a mission, notice I picked up a rug (while transiting at a major airbase) to add some comfort to my living space.
标签: 阿富汗战场
